Who will actually be able to access your My Health Record?

Updated
July 27, 2018 13:58:35

Debate over opting out of the Federal Government My Health program to digitise personal health records has raged this week, with claims police and other agencies will be able to access our data without a court order or a warrant. But the agency in charge of the scheme says that won't happen, but some prominent doctors are still not convinced.

ELLEN FANNING, PRESENTER: Well, we do our banking and just about everything else online these days so it is easy to understand why doctors might be frustrated by still having to hunt down paperwork and communicate via fax machines when it comes to our most valuable commodity, our health.

The debate over the need to opt out of the Federal Government's latest attempt to digitise our personal health records has raged this week as the penny has dropped that police and other agencies might be able to access our data without a court order or a warrant.

That's never going to happen says the agency in charge of the scheme but in these times of digital insecurity, some prominent doctors are not convinced.

Geoff Thompson reports.

DR CHARLOTTE HESPE, GP: Hi John, how are you?

JOHN BARCLAY: Nice to see you again.

GEOFF THOMPSON, REPORTER: John Barclay is heading in for his regular check-up.

CHARLOTTE HESPE: So how are you going on the new medication?

JOHN BARCLAY: It seems to be working okay.

GEOFF THOMPSON: The 70-year-old is being treated for deep vein thrombosis so quick, easy access to his health records is crucial.

CHARLOTTE HESPE: If anything happens, then anybody who sees you knows. Is that okay with you?

JOHN BARCLAY: It is absolutely okay.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Dr Charlotte Hespe is John's local GP.

CHARLOTTE HESPE: At the moment we just operate under silos. So I do my thing, the hospital does its thing, the private hospital does its own thing, a specialists and/or allied health people do all their thing, and there's no means of really actually making sure we're all on the same page.

GEOFF THOMPSON: For some patients, a nationally linked digital health record system can be a life and death issue.

PROF. IAN HICKIE, MENTAL HEALTH COMMISSION: There is no doubt that a national database, well co-ordinated, available at the point of care, will save lives - their mental health record, their physical health record, what medications they're taking, what treatment they've received.

Having that information available at the point of care, particularly crisis care, will save lives.

GEOFF THOMPSON: In principle, there seems to be furious agreement among health professionals that in the digital age, the days of finding and faxing paper records around the country should already be long gone.

But there is disagreement about the legislation governing the My Health Record system particularly section 70, which says that health records can be handed over if the digital health agency reasonably believes that it's necessary to enforce laws, investigate crimes or to protect public revenue.

Significantly, the legislation does not explicitly state that a court order or a warrant is required.

PROF. KERRYN PHELPS, FORMER AMA PRESIDENT: It's a patient's ultimate choice about whether it's uploaded or not. They'll have to get a health record anyway.

GEOFF THOMPSON: And that's what's bothering Professor Kerryn Phelps who has joined other former presidents of the Australian Medical Association in demanding that the legislation be redrafted.

KERRYN PHELPS: A number of former AMA presidents have now spoken out and said that they want to extend the opt out period and have a proper analysis of the legislation and its impact on individuals and confidentiality in the health care sector and to make sure that we get this right because if we don't get it right, the whole system is going to fail.

GEOFF THOMPSON: New AMA President, Tony Bartone, was under pressure at the National Press Club in Canberra yesterday and agreed something has to change.

REPORTER: Will you be asking Health Minister Greg Hunt to change the legislation so section 70 is reformed?

DR TONY BARTONE, AMA PRESIDENT: I will do whatever it takes to ensure that the ambiguity and any discrepancy between the legislation and what currently is the standard practice or what we all practice under, is removed and put to bed once and for all, whatever it takes.

GEOFF THOMPSON: The Australian Digital Health Agency, which is running My Health Record, says its policy is not to share people's health records unless a court orders it to.

DR STEVE HAMBLETON, DIGITAL HEALTH AGENCY: We need to look at what agency is saying. It's the system operator. it is saying, unless there is judicial overview.

Now if a judge says, "Yes, you should get access to the data," I think Australians understand that's the sort of overview we need.

If there's a court order or a judge that's had a look at the data and says, "This is reasonable," then it's reasonable.

IAN HICKIE: It isn't simply a policy. This is long-standing legal precedence in Australia.

So right now your medical records can be handed over to the police or other agencies under court direction.

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GEOFF THOMPSON: Kerryn Phelps is worried that if not written into law the agency's policies could be changed.

KERRYN PHELPS: Do you want certain agencies knowing that you have a mental health diagnosis or that you're taking anti-depressants or you're taking particular medications that maybe you don't want other people to know.

Do you want strangers in the tax office knowing about it? These are the questions you have to ask yourself.

IAN HICKIE: There is ongoing debate in my area, mental health areas are very sensitive.

You do always have the option to opt out but collectively we all have so much more to gain by being in.

So, in my view, this situation now where we're all in, unless we have a specific personal reason to be out, is of the national benefit and I'd like to see Australians behave collectively for a public good when the personal risk is actually very low.

GEOFF THOMPSON: The setup of Australia's digital health record system also comes in an age of mass data breaches.

Just this month, almost a quarter of Singapore's population, 1.5 million people, including the Prime Minister, had their health data hacked.

MALCOLM TURNBULL, PRIME MINISTER: There are over six million Australians with My Health records. There have not been any complaints of privacy breaches in all of that time.

STEVE HAMBLETON: Just because we've had six million people for six years and there's never been a breach, doesn't mean there won't be.

I think that is just foolhardy. People won't believe that.

What we can give the assurance to is that we'll do the very best we can. What we can also say is actually, it's better than the bank and it's a lot better than the bank.

MALCOLM TURNBULL: The doctors of some of the AMA and the College of General Practitioners who support My Health Record have raised some issues which they've discussed with the Health Minister and they will be addressed but this is a program which has had bipartisan support for a long time.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Australians have until October 15 to decide if they want to opt out of My Health Record.